The present invention relates broadly to apparatus for retrieving objects from the ground. More specifically, the present invention relates to hand-held nut harvesting devices. This invention is believed best classified in U.S. Class 294, subclass 19.1.
Pecans and other tree-borne nuts are typically harvested after they have fallen to the ground. As will be appreciated, manually retrieving nuts scattered about upon the ground is extremely time-consuming. For example, a harvester manually retrieving nuts would have to work many hours to gather the harvest from a single pecan tree. The use of shovels and similar devices adapted to sweep nuts from a large are of the ground has proven unsuccessful, since such devices simultaneously gather all manner of other undesirable products, such as grass, leaves, and trash, which must be subsequently removed. For the owner of a relatively small pecan orchard, for example, such labor-intensive harvesting methods are completely unprofitable. Hence, it is desirable to provide a nut harvester device which can be used to quickly retrieve a number of nuts from an area without gathering trash and other undesired objects.
Moreover, manual harvesting techniques are physically quite demanding. The harvester's hands quickly weary from repeated reaching, grasping, and contacting the rough nut shells. Continual bending over a long period of time may unduly strain the picker's back and leg muscles, and overtax the respiratory and circulatory systems. Hence it is desirable to provide a device which permits a harvester to retrieve a plurality of nuts from a large area without handling each nut and while maintaining a generally erect posture.
Over the years, various inventions have been proposed for simplifying the task. One broad category of harvesting devices known in the prior art is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,697, issued to Poche on June 12, 1956; U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,190, issued to Wray on September 14, 1971; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,939, issued April 6, 1982 to McDonald. The pecan pickers described therein generally comprise an elongated handle mounted upon a nut gathering head or roller comprised of a plurality of resilient members defining a hollow cage-like center. When the head contacts a nut on the ground, the nut forces the members to flex apart to admit the nut, which then remains trapped within the interior cage. Undesired trash falls easily between the resilient members when the device is shaken. When the cage is full, the harvester may then quickly dump the load of nuts from the head into a basket or similar receptacle. A similar roller-type device proposed by Livingston, U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,179, issued January 3, 1978, includes a separate collection container mounted upon the roller frame.
Another broad category of gathering devices proposed in the prior art known to me generally comprises baskets or similar enclosures mounted to the end of an elongated rod or handle. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,781, issued September 28, 1976 to Tucker et al., illustrates the use of a bag-like enclosure which has an open receiving end. The receiving end is covered with springs which resiliently respond when the device is pressed against a golf ball to be retrieved. The balls are then stored within the bag and manually removed through a zipper opening in the side of the bag. A similar device disclosed by McVey, U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,632, issued December 29, 1987, employs a rigid hollow shell having an open bottom surrounded by a plurality of downwardly and inwardly extending fingers. When shell is pressed down upon the object to be retrieved, the fingers retract inwardly to admit the object into the hollow interior of the shell. When the device is raised, the captured object is trapped by the fingers, until it is dumped by the user from an outlet defined in a side wall thereof.
Of additional relevance to the present minvention are various golf ball retrieval devices such as those defined by MacDonald in U.S. Pat. No. 1,937,828, issued December 5, 1953 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,027,546, issued January 4, 1936; by Watson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,760,807, issued August 28, 1956; by Fowler, U.S. Pat. No. 2,962,321, issued November 29, 1960; and by Shott, U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,545, issued August 26, 1975. The latter-mentioned references illustrate the concept of providing an elongated tube dimensioned for receiving and storing golf balls. Various devices for retaining the golf balls within the tube after entry are also proposed. For example, Fowler, '321 employs a spring-biased mechanical latch which rotates upwardly to admit a ball and rotates downwardly to block the tube. Flexible tab members are positioned about the mouth of the Watson '807 and Shott '545.
The most relevant prior art retrieval devices known to me are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,258,286, issued June 28, 1966 to Coward and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,413, issued June 24, 1986 to La Porte. The golf ball retriever defined by Coward comprises a hollow casing having a hinged top cover and mounted upon an elongated hand-held rod. The ball-receptive input orifice defined at the lower end of the casing is covered by cooperative springs which flex to receive golf balls positioned upon the ground, and subsequently resiliently respond to retain the golf balls within the casing. The latter La Porte '413 reference discloses a device adapted to retrieve beverage cans and similar trash from the ground. Parallel springs extending across the lower mouth of the housing are spaced so as to receive larger cans and bottles while permitting smaller articles to fall away. A pivotal gate divides the internal cavity into the lower bottle-receptive chamber and an upper chamber for receiving litter or other trash manually retrieved by a separate hand pick device, which is removably mounted upon the housing wall. Emptying the chambers after use is facilitated by a pivotal handgrip.
However, based on my experience, none of the above-referenced retrieval devices is suitable for collecting a large harvest of pecans. One major disadvantage encountered with the flexible roller head retrievers is that they are inefficient and cannot be used for the collection of a large pecan harvest. In general, the flexible tines used in such devices quickly break or become badly deformed and cannot be replaced. Moreover, such devices are typically made of metals, which are heavy and cumbersome, and they cannot be broken down or disassembled for convenient storage and transport.
The referenced tubular golf ball-retrieval devices known to me are unsuitable for collecting smaller and, in particular, irregularly shaped objects such as nuts. Moreover, none of the known prior art tubular gathering devices provide adequate means for receiving and handling several balls at one time. Such golf ball tubes thus must be placed over each individual ball, and no means are suggested for preventing the binding of irregularly shaped objects within the tube or the accumulation of undesired objects.
Finally, neither the Coward nor the LaPorte reference described hereinabove is suitable for use in a nut harvest. No means are suggested in these latter references for providing containers of suitable dimensions for nut collection, nor are means found for preventing binding of the collected objects within the receptive channels. Both of the latter devices are cumbersome, expensive to produce, and not readily adapted for convenient transport and storage. Moreover, no adequate cover means are provided to prevent the inadvertent release of gathered objects from the storage cavities during use.
Hence it is desired to present an improved pecan collector device which applies the best teachings of the prior art but overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages associated with the prior art gathering devices, and which can be inexpensively produced of readily available materials.